Oh my… I can’t believe that the month of March is almost gone!!  Where does the time go!?!???!! It seems like not too long ago, we celebrated Christmas & New Year and now we’re following March Madness and preparing for Easter!!  The month of March also marks the start of wedding season for me!! I had a wonderful jump-start into wedding season already with 4 awesome weddings in the month of March!! Sorry, I’m a little behind on blogging those weddings.  I’ll have them up soon though!  I’m so excited and can’t wait to share all my weekend ventures with you all!!  Check back periodically for updates.

In the meantime, are you all ready for some major cuteness overload?!!!?!!  As you may recall, Gavin and I welcomed two adorable kittens into our Tran-Holt family last November.  When we adopted them, these two were in horrible condition.  Button was found in a dumpster and Powder was found wandering around in a vacant backyard.  Well… look at them now!!!  These two are my precious and I think they pretty much OWN me!!  Every time I feel down or is having a bad day, one look at my adorable babies and I can’t help but to smile again!  What’s even cuter is that every time I come home,  Button and Powder would run downstairs to greet me as I open the door.  They are usually upstairs sleeping and it’s SO darn cute when they run downstairs to greet me with squinty eyes because they had just woke up from their nap.

We originally thought Button (first picture) was a Tabby, but the Vet says Button could be a Maine Coon.  Gavin did some online research and OMG we found out that female Maine Coons can weigh anywhere from 15 to 25 pounds!!!  LOL.. and I’m not surprised because she’s definitely put on some weight since we got her.  You can see her their baby pictures here.

This is Button at 5 & 1/2 months.  How could you not fall in love with that face!!!

And this is Powder at 6 months .  I LOVE Powder’s eyes; she’s got some crazy awesome looking eyes!!  A Vet student once told me, “Be careful of white cats with green eyes… they are can be little crazy!” LOL… and boy was she right!!!  Powder is a handful.  She’ll do the most funniest thing you’ll ever see.  One time she plopped on the floor and then started dragging herself across the room with only her front paws!!  ”Weird cat” or “Crazy cat” is her nick name… in addition to “Motorboat” because she purrs very loudly.  We found that Powder is very affectionate and more lovey-dovey with us then Button is.  Powder LOVES to be around people and LOVES to cuddle up and sleep with us at night.  She’ll come up and put her face right next to ours or fall asleep on our chest or next to our shoulder.  She’ll sometime be so affectionate that it becomes annoying when we’re trying to sleep so I’ll Gavin would not let her in our room.  She’ll be meowing ALL night long!

The following two pictures are done using a Ray Flash with a 15mm fish eye.  Cool huh???

Here’s Powder stalking something.  I don’t know what.. but she likes to stalk little bugs and then attack them~!!

Button and Powder likes to rough play with each other a lot!  Sometimes we’ll hear them chase after each other around the house (even in the middle of the night).  I read online that after 4 months kittens hit their peak in rough-playing and begin to mellow out.  Well…NOT these two!! They are so playful and full of energy!

Awww….. And this is Gavin… he’s my third baby!! heehee  Gavin, very much like Powder,  is a social butterfly and is very much like Button in that he sometimes can be quite mischievous.  He loves to be around people but more importantly he LOVES to play video games!!  I found him at Sav-on Pharmacy about 5 and a half years ago!!  And yeah… I think I’m gonna keep him too!!  =)

Peek-a-Boo— I see you!!!

I am so glad to have Button and Powder in our lives!!  They add so much life to our home and so much love to our lives!!  I don’t know what I’ll do without them… they’re my precious! Everyday I pray that other people would find it in their hearts and give these lovable animals a chance and making a difference in their lives as well.  Please let me know if you are interested in adopting a cat or dog!!! I can definitely send over Heather’s information.  She has many dogs and cats who are in desperate need a home.

Cheers,

Judy

Veronique and Yann are an AMAZING couple!!  I had soooo much fun being their wedding photographer and hanging out with them the entire day.  A few days before their wedding I had caught a nasty flu/cold from my trip to Vegas for a photography conference (WPPI).  I thought I was gonna die from my throbbing headache, sore throat and aching body (and no I am not exaggerating) but once I showed up at their wedding, their joy and cheerful energy miraculously transferred to me and I completely forgot that I was sick!!  No really… !!!  These two are super cute and perfect for each other…  Their love story started when Vero was in France working as an English Teacher; and they met through Yann’s dad.  Actually, it was Yann’s dad that hooked them up because he insisted that Yann showed Vero around while she was in France.  It was so cool listening to them speak to each other in French.

If I had to describe Vero and Yann’s wedding in two words, I’d have to say it was ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!!!  They broke all traditions… from wedding dress to wedding cake; and now WE are gonna break traditions with some kick-@$$ wedding pictures!! heehee

A week before their wedding, Vero sent me an email and in it these were her exact words, “… just ask us to do anything if you have  ideas, we’ll do anything short of jumping into the ocean (it’s so cold!).”  I LOVE it when my couple is down for experimenting and doing different things!!  I’m sure that if the water weren’t so cold (and if they didn’t have a reception to attend afterwards), this laid back couple would totally be up for jumping into the water.  Vero… you up for a trash-the-dress session???

And for those who are new to my blog entries… I’m a ring nut and I make it a goal to take different ring shoots each time I’m at a wedding!  So here it is…

Oh… and about breaking traditions… I almost forgot to add that Vero and Yann are already married (to each other) prior to their “wedding day”.  Because they had a court wedding ceremony (a while back), they decided to not have a wedding ceremony again, thus we got LOTS of time of pictures.  Veronique and Yann got ready at a beach-front house that they rented for the day in Newport Beach (next to Balboa Island).  From there, we hopped down to the beach and then over to Balboa Pier, The Fun Zone, random streets, parking lot … LOL  everywhere!!!  It was such a fun day!!

Once again I got a chance to work with a good friend of mine, Vivian Tran of the  All Made Up Team.  I’ve worked with Vivian and her girls (Angelina in particular) multiple times and each time they do an outstanding job on make-up and hair!!  I can’t wait until she does my hair and make-up for my wedding this coming December!!

Aside from wedding rings, I also have this “thing” for lashes too!!  It could very well be that my lashes are short and thin, thus I’m making up for it in my pictures!

There was this awesome ray of light shining through the window and I was stoke to capture the following…

YES!!! They brought props!! Awesome isn’t it?!?!?!  I got so excited when I saw that they had brought a picture frame for the shoot!!

Vero had her dress specifically designed for her.  She and her seamstress had been working on it for about a year… designing the dress… picking out the fabric and… and making of the dress!! Isn’t that cool??

and oh boy do they know how to work the camera!!

This is HOT!!!

Vero… you ever thought about changing careers and being a model???

They had their reception at Harborside Pavilion in Balboa island.

Check out their wedding “cake”!!  LOL… it was about 4 to 5 feet tall!  That “mountain” was completely made of cream-puffs!! Yum… I love cream-puffs!

Vero have been doing Irish dancing for 12 years now, so for her wedding… she and her girls performed for everyone!

Then… she got everyone onto the dance floor and TAUGHT them a dance!!

Vero and Yann… you guys make a beautiful couple!!  Congratulations and best wishes!!  I’m honored to be apart of your special day!  Can’t wait to design your wedding album!!

When Miranda told me that she and Jordan wanted to do their engagement session where there were railroad tracks, tall weeds and orange groves, I was super excited because I’ve been looking for such a place!!  ”Well… look no more” says Miranda!  She found a road somewhere in Redlands that had all the above.

We started off at an abandoned train station… (somewhere in Redlands).

We drove pass their wedding venue on our way to the second location.  It’s a BEAUTIFUL mansion!!  Here are some quick pictures in the front of the mansion.  We’re saving pictures at this location for the their wedding day!!

So… we finally pulled over after Miranda was done teasing me with so many beautiful locations up and down that road.

Some of the places where fenced off so we joking said… “haha… imagine if someone weird dude comes out with a shoot gun and tells us to get off his property.”  Funny thing is… after we said that, we looked on the floor and there were a couple rounds of shoot gun shells!  Miranda, Jordan and I decided that it would be best that we stay the heck out of that property!!

I completely forgot that some of the dry weeds have torn and ouch do they hurt when you walk through them!!

Here are my favorites…

I’ve always thought a kiss on the forehead is “UPER” yes… “Uper” cute!!! There’s something that is so genuine about it…

I LOVE this picture!!!

Anyone want oranges???  because I now know where we can go to get them!!  LOL…

From dry weeds to beautiful blossoms…   These last few pictures were actually in front of some random person’s house.  We were driving back to pick up my car and I can’t pass up a cute photo opp.

I was thinking… how am I going to explain it to the owner if the swing broke.

You can see their entire engagement session here